I got to spend some time with the author Ken Levine a few baseball seasons ago when I donated to the Dodger charity auction and wound up as a co-host on the "Dodger Talk" post-game show with Ken and Josh Suchon. As a result, I watched the game from the stadium press box right along with Ken and he was a delight to spend a baseball contest with.
Ken has an amazing career. Well, two actually. A well-known TV comedy writer and producer with the likes of "M*A*S*H*," "Cheers," and "Frasier." Oh, and he reminds us in the book, let's not forget his work on "Almost Perfect," a show that never should have been cancelled. But, he also transitioned himself into the world of baseball announcing and he's most recently been one of the radio voices for the Seattle Mariners. Most people don't get to follow and achieve one dream in their life. Ken got to manage two. Moreover, his daily blog is quite well known. I believe Time Magazine cited it as one of the top blogs out there. And I'm guessing Ken's blog likely has more readers than Time Magazine anyway, so that's a dandy factoid from Oxymoronville.
He can now add "book author" to his lofty resume. These days, everybody can be one. Write yourself 300 pages and you can always self-publish. Or organize two hundred or so of the funniest poses by your cat Sniffles. Suddenly, the immediate world can be Bennett Cerf at Random House. But, the trick is to publish your own book and have something nifty to say. That's what "The Me Generation" manages to do.
As you read my blog on a daily basis, I can tell you that Ken's blog was a bit of an inspiration as I began it five years ago. That was intentional. What Ken's new book is a variation of my Sunday Memory Drawer pieces. I'm pretty sure that was unintentional. But, the effect is the same. Ken goes through a linear recounting of his life growing up in Woodland Hills, California during the 60s. That takes us from age 10 to age 19. The most formative years of any person. Where puberty takes hold. And, believe me, that's the overriding focus on most of Ken's vignettes from that decade. Sex and how does a kid get any?
Oh, don't get me wrong. There's plenty of other fun stuff in Ken's decade-long journey. For someone who, as a kid, would view the world of Southern California as if it was on the moon, it was refreshing to learn that a teenager there was just like a teenager anyway. Except that you were a lot closer to the beach and you could hear Vin Scully every day. It was fascinating to hear about what was the hot record store or radio station in Los Angeles back during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. We had a hot record store and radio station in Mount Vernon, New York. As a result, Ken's memory bank resonates with each and every one of us. And it's frequently hilarious, to boot.
But, back to the carnal urges. There's a lot of that in Ken's book and, comparing it to my own teenage years, I began to wonder what the hell I was doing wrong. I don't remember it being that prevalent on the minds of me and my friends. Oh, sure, we all had our mad crushes. But, I don't recall a lot of talk about sex or lack thereof. As I giggled and smiled my way through Ken's story, I couldn't help but think whether my gang back in the neighborhood was normal. Or abnormal. Or had I missed something altogether?
And boy, did we miss something?!!!
Dinner last night: Had a big lunch on the plane, so nothing really.
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